


Strange Bedfellows

by bones96



Category: JUDGE EYES: 死神の遺言 | Judgment
Genre: Another serial killer love story from a totally normal and well-adjusted person, Brief reference to gore, F/M, Female Shono, First Meetings, Gender-Swapped Character, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, kind of, rated m to be safe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-30 08:51:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21425494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bones96/pseuds/bones96
Summary: At the end of the day, we're all just looking for someone who will believe in us.
Relationships: Kuroiwa Mitsuru/Shono Yoji
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	Strange Bedfellows

**Author's Note:**

> I’m not even that familiar with this game, really. I just spent three weeks watching seventy episodes worth of my favorite Let’s Player playing it, and now that I’m done I don’t know what to do with my life.
> 
> The gender swap is not for shipping purposes, I swear. As much as I loved the story, the game's cast was still kind of a sausage fest so I did a little thought experiment to see which male characters could have been women without it changing the story too much. In the end I landed on Sugiura and Shono as the characters who could have reasonably been women. And then this idea manifested itself after that.

The mad doctor sat at the bar alone. Dr. Yui Shono had been awake for forty-nine straight hours at the laboratory, continuing her futile quest to perfect AD-9, her miracle drug. Somehow she had been convinced to go home, but she wasn’t ready for sleep just yet. Her neurons were firing at a rapid pace, filling her head with thoughts, awful thoughts that she would have to drink away before she had any hope of rest.

_too much pain too much death too much FAILURE should I _stop? _can’t stop can’t stop in too deep what’s done can’t be undone, can’t be can’t be can’t be undone_

She took tiny, cautious sips of her wine. Her brain was so fried from lack of sleep that the flavor barely even registered on her tongue.

A man sat next to her. Dr. Shono surreptitiously glanced to her left and assessed his profile. Very attractive. Youthful features. Shono bit her lip and turned back to her drink, embarrassed at the thought of such a handsome guy catching her staring. Not that she actually expected him to notice her, of course. She was mousy. She never smiled, and her ears were too big for her head. She could comfortably drink alone because men never approached her in bars. She was even invisible to Dr. Kido, the notorious womanizer. She asked wildly unreasonable things of him in the interest of AD-9, and he had never once asked for a “favor” in return. If it were any of her female students in her position, she knew for a fact that Kido would demand a handjob at _least _in exchange for covering up their drug’s fatal side effects. Shono supposed she should feel lucky to escape such harassment. But sometimes she yearned. If she could get her ass grabbed just _once…_

The man placed a hand on the bar as he ordered a glass of the most expensive wine they served. Broad palms, long, limber fingers, _perfect _for handling someone’s body.

Damn, she was looking again. She tore her eyes away, but it was already too late.

“Dr. Shono, is it?”

Shono jolted in her seat. The man was staring directly at her and he was even more beautiful face to face. “How do you know my name?” she said, her voice breaking from days of disuse.

“Mitsuru Kuroiwa,” said the man, bowing his head. He didn’t answer her question. “A pleasure.”

“Do you… know me?”

A smile played on Kuroiwa’s lips. “In a sense,” he answered. “I know that you’re the true mastermind behind AD-9. What a shame a pig like Dr. Kido feels comfortable taking credit for such a brilliant discovery, just because you’re a woman.”

That was far from the only reason why she let Kido take the credit, but Shono wasn’t about to correct someone who was singing her praises. Kuroiwa adjusted his jacket and it was then that she noticed the badge – he was a cop. She tensed at the realization, remembering her crimes, but she relaxed again when he placed a hand over hers. He was bold. She liked that.

He peered over his shoulder before leaning in close. The air he breathed into her ear was oddly cool. “And I know about Emi Terasawa,” he whispered.

A chill ran down Shono’s spine and sent her free hand towards her phone. The routine was becoming a reflex to her: she would call Kido, Kido would call Ichinose, Ichinose would call the yakuza and Shono would wait in her secret lab for the tall man in the black raincoat to deliver a partially conscious Kuroiwa. His eyes were very pretty. She’d find out what they would look like bright blue.

Kuroiwa’s grip on her hand tightened. “I wouldn’t bother, doctor,” he whispered. “Your hitman isn’t going to take himself out.”

It was him. The man in the black raincoat. She had never seen his face, she had never heard his voice, but his presence – now that he had confirmed it – was unmistakable. All things told, Shono was numb to her test subjects’ dying shrieks and the spray of vitreous when she removed their eyes – all’s fair in the war against Alzheimer’s. She only began to doubt whether she was doing the right thing when that sinister figure appeared to her, reeking of bloodlust and sociopathy. He reminded her that she was no heroine, but a coward hiding behind a dark

_in too deep in too deep_

conspiracy.

“Why are you here?” Shono squeaked.

Kuroiwa stood. He was certainly tall enough. “I’d like to speak with you outside,” he said, at full volume again. His grip tightened even more, preventing her from fleeing and possibly breaking some of the bones in her hand. “The check,” he said to the bartender. “I’ll be paying for the lady as well.” He let go of her to grab his wallet. She clutched her aching hand to her chest and watched him, mesmerized. “Wait for me by the door. Don’t leave.”

_If you do, I will find you again, _Shono understood implicitly. She scrambled to her feet and did as she was told, hovering under the doorframe as he paid, much to the chagrin of another couple who were just arriving. Crossing the room in his detective attire, Kuroiwa projected authority as well as deadliness. Both compelled Shono to follow him into the dim alleyway. He whisked her behind a dumpster.

“What are you doing here?” she asked again.

“I wanted to meet you in person. Believe it or not, I’m not mindless in what I do. I like to have some picture in my mind of what, exactly, I’m protecting.”

“Do you think you’re meant to protect me?”

“You, AD-9… they’re the same thing, aren’t they, doctor?”

Shono’s heart jumped. He was right, she thought. _We are one and the same._

“The people who hired me for your little project tell me nothing about AD-9. Only that it’s a lethal failure.” Kuroiwa shook his head. “But they’re idiots. I wouldn’t want to hear about it from them, anyway. Not when I could ask the mind behind it. Tell me. Is AD-9 as deadly as they say it is, Dr. Shono?”

He was able to square being a hitman with being a cop. He must have been smart. They wouldn’t be having this conversation here if he wasn’t certain that no one would hear them. But Shono was wary to speak the name of her failure in public. “The drug is flawed,” she admitted. “I can’t remove the toxins without also removing its functionality as a cure for –” She cut herself off and looked at her feet. “It would be nearly impossible.”

Kuroiwa grabbed her by the chin and forced her to look up at him. “You don’t really believe that, do you?”

Shono just whimpered in response. He didn’t seem angry, not exactly, but he could crush her like a bug if the whim struck him.

“I’ve hung back to watch your experiments, you know,” Kuroiwa murmured. “You’re _ruthless. _Either you have a real hard-on for killing – which I sympathize with – or you’re a woman with true ambition – which I admire.” His eyes scanned her face analytically. “You wouldn’t be at this with such enthusiasm if you didn’t think you could change your luck. You think your drug can really save the world.”

_“The world” is an exaggeration… _Shono thought. But she wasn’t about to backtalk a skilled assassin. Especially not when (was she imagining this?) their faces were only centimeters apart, his perfect lips close enough to spit in her eye if she were to make one wrong –

“And I agree with you.”

“What?” Shono stumbled backwards as Kuroiwa released his grip on her chin. He caught her by the wrist and pulled her back to him before she could hit her head against the dumpster.

“Someone with your drive can pull it off,” he said. “I truly believe that.”

Shono waited for him to laugh. She knew they all laughed behind her back, called her delusional, fanatical, a maniac chasing a pipe dream, and if there were anyone cruel enough to say it to her face, it would be the man in the black raincoat. She barely believed in AD-9 anymore, and it was _her _drug. Kuroiwa was certainly toying with her.

But the laugh never came. “You want AD-9 to succeed, don’t you?” said Kuroiwa, as straight-faced as ever. He paused and raised an eyebrow, expecting a response.

“Y-yes, yes, of course I do,” answered Shono. Her throat burned in fear and in excitement.

Kuroiwa smirked, and suddenly, the hand he had been using to manhandle her all night came up to sweetly brush through her hair. “Then the two of us ought to work more closely.”

* * *

The mad doctor lay in bed, no longer alone. Dr. Yui Shono was still trembling from the first orgasm she’d ever had by another person, and she was no longer thinking about AD-9, her miracle drug. In fact, her brain was completely clear and calm for the first time in weeks. She could have easily drifted off to sleep if it weren’t for the beautiful monster by her side.

Kuroiwa’s hand clamped around her skinny upper arm as he held her against his bare chest. He surely left bruises there to match the love bites on her neck. He chuckled humorlessly and grazed his lips and teeth across the skin of her temple, making her shiver. And then he whispered in her ear: “Now that we’ve gotten to know each other, _Yui, _why don’t you tell me more about the drug that’s going to make us heroes?”

The thoughts came back in a rush, but they were different this time.

_ruthless ambition brilliant heroes save the world save the world SAVE THE WORLD_

Not conflicted. No more guilt. A slight smile spread across Shono’s unremarkable face. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know,” she said before pulling him in for one more of those poison kisses to which she was already becoming addicted.

Kuroiwa believed in her. The devil couldn’t convince her she was in the wrong now.


End file.
